Homes with Chinese drywall must be gutted, new guidelines say

Associated Press fileA large chunk of Chinese drywall from the Alfonso Sanchez home in Davie, Fla. leans against the wall. New federal guidelines released Friday say thousands of U.S. homes tainted by Chinese drywall won't be safe unless they are completely gutted.

"We want
families to tear it all out and rebuild the interior of their homes, and
they need to start this to get their lives started all over again,"
said Inez Tenenbaum, chairwoman of the commission, the federal agency
charged with making sure consumer products are safe.

About 3,000
homeowners, mostly in Florida, Virginia, Mississippi, Alabama and
Louisiana, have reported problems with the Chinese-made drywall, which
was imported in large quantities during the housing boom and after a
string of Gulf Coast hurricanes.

The drywall has been linked to
corrosion of wiring, air conditioning units, computers, doorknobs and
jewelry, along with possible health effects. Tenenbaum said some samples
of the Chinese-made product emit 100 times as much hydrogen sulfide as
drywall made elsewhere.

The agency continues to investigate
possible health effects, but preliminary studies have found a possible
link between throat, nose and lung irritation and high levels of
hydrogen sulfide gas emitted from the wallboard, coupled with
formaldehyde, which is commonly found in new houses.

U.S. Sen.
Bill Nelson, D-Fla., said now the question is who pays to gut the homes.

"The
way I see it, homeowners didn't cause this. The manufacturers in China
did," Nelson said. "That's why we've got to go after the Chinese
government now."

Southern members of Congress have sought to make
it easier to sue Chinese manufacturers and to get the Federal Emergency
Management Agency to help homeowners pay for costs not covered by
insurance. They also say the U.S. needs to pressure the Chinese
government, which allegedly ran some of the companies that made
defective drywall.

About 2,100 homeowners have filed suit in
federal court in New Orleans against Chinese manufacturers and U.S.
companies that sold the drywall. U.S. District Judge Eldon Fallon is
expected to rule soon in a pivotal case against the Knauf Plasterboard
Tianjin Co., the only Chinese company that has responded to U.S. suits.

Separate
claims by thousands more homeowners against Chinese manufacturers are
pending, said Jordan Chaikin, a Florida lawyer whose firm represents
about 1,000 homeowners.

They are "continuing to live in their
homes with Chinese drywall, patiently waiting for this thing to be
resolved so they can move on with their lives," Chaikin said. "We're not
waiting for the government to move quicker than we are in the courts."

In
some cases, homebuilders have paid to gut and rewire homes. In others,
homeowners who can afford it have paid for the work themselves.

On
Friday, Knauf Plasterboard agreed that high hydrogen sulfide levels
appeared to be the main concern, but it noted the commission's studies
were preliminary and may not reflect conditions inside a home. The
company said its studies have shown that drywall should be removed, but
that plumbing and wiring do not need to go.

Daniel Becnel, a New
Orleans lawyer representing Chinese drywall plaintiffs, including Sean
Payton, the head coach of the Super Bowl champion New Orleans Saints,
said the government guidelines issued Friday were "word for word what
our experts said."

He also said Congress should give homeowners
grants to cover the cost of home gutting.

"Get these people out of
this environment," he said. "You're making these people sicker and
sicker and sicker. You will have long-term effects."

In Cape
Coral, Fla., Joyce Dowdy, 71, and her husband Sonny, 63, plan to move
out of their $150,000, 1,600-square-foot home while it is gutted to get
rid of tainted Chinese drywall.

Joyce Dowdy said she suffers from
nose bleeds and her husband has a persistent cough. They blame the
drywall.

"We can't live like this anymore," Joyce Dowdy.

They're
borrowing money to do the gutting, which means that instead of a
mortgage-free retirement they will be paying monthly bills cover the
costs of repair.

"It's costing us as much as we paid for the
house," Joyce Dowdy said. "But we can't just walk away ... Our house is
worth nothing at the moment."

But Randy Noel, past president of
the Louisiana Home Builders Association, said the Chinese drywall
problem has been exaggerated. He called the new guidelines "overkill."

"Nobody
has come up with a house yet that has caught on fire from the Chinese
drywall, no one has come up yet with a house that leaks water or gas
because of Chinese drywall," he said.

He has examined numerous
homes containing Chinese drywall and found minor problems, he said.

"It's
a black soot on top of the copper, brass and silver," he said. "You
wipe the stuff off and it looks as good as new."

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